Sunseeker 295 retires again … this time to the Air Zoo

Sunseeker 295 has been refurbished and is now on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Space Annex. It was recently returned to WMU after being exhibited for the past 5 years at the Gilmore Car Museum.

Sunseeker 295 is the solar-powered vehicle that WMU entered in the 2001 American Solar Challenge (ASC), which followed Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.

In ASC 2001, Sunseeker 295 took 5^th place in stock class and 23^rd overall. It was also featured in a National Geographic solar-car documentary that aired on cable network.

Abraham Poot, adviser to Sunseeker, said that the car played a major part of the history of WMU’s solar vehicles.

Sunseeker 295 was originally Sunseeker 93, built for the 1993 GM Sunrayce, a race from Dallas, Texas, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Overcast and rainy weather hampered all 34 solar team entries, and Sunseeker 93 finished 18^th .

Sunseeker 93 had a strong chassis and served as the base for Sunseeker 95, which featured improvements in the solar array, power train, and aerodynamics. With a new Bronco Gold paint job, Sunseeker 95 placed 8^th of 38 cars in the1995 Sunrayce, which ran from Indianapolis to Golden, Colorado.

Sunseeker 295 on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Annex

Sunseeker 95 was put on display before the 1997 race and used that year as an educational tool in every town along the race route. It was retired after the 1997 race and loaned to Gilmore Car Museum for exhibition in the Steam and Electric Vehicle barn.

For the 2001 competition, the ASC’s 2400-mile challenge along Route 66 became the longest solar race in the world.

Problems with the modification of the 1999 solar car prompted WMU to pull Sunseeker 95 out of retirement. With a new solar array, carbon-fiber wheels, and new battery pack, Sunseeker 295 was born.

After the 2001 race, Sunseeker 295 was used extensively for recruiting and education. The car visited numerous schools in West Michigan, participated in energy events, took part in parades, and appeared at special WMU events. Sunseeker 295 was retired after a new 2003 Sunseeker was built.

Last November Sunseeker 295 was moved from the Gilmore Museum to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. “Over the past 19 years, more than a million people have seen the WMU solar cars,” Poot said. “Sunseeker 295 played a major role.”

For additional information, see the Sunseeker web site: www.wmich.edu/sunseeker or contact the Sunseeker team at: sunseeker@wmich.edu

Patten’s new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) to run on wind energy

Last year Dr. John Patten, the manufacturing engineering department chair, secured funding from a Community Energy Project Grant (CEPG) from the State of Michigan Energy Office and from WMU to retrofit his Toyota Prius with a $10,000 battery system that transforms the hybrid-electric vehicle into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The vehicle now runs up to 40 miles on a battery before it moves into its hybrid mode.

Patten took the five-year-old Prius to Minneapolis – the nearest place where the work was available – for the installation of 200 pounds of lithium ion batteries, a controller, a charger, a regulator, a plug-in, and the interface that makes it a plug in. “It’s pretty cool,” he said. “I can go up to 40 miles on the battery before the hybrid kicks in.”

The new PHEV serves two major purposes. First it’s a demonstration vehicle. “I want people to know that this can be done,” he said.

Second, Patten is monitoring the car’s performance, use of gas and electricity, and costs and the effects of temperature on the battery.

In addition, Patten wants to power the new battery with the electricity produced by a wind turbine located on the WMU Parkview campus along US 131 near the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences sign. He funded the turbine’s installation in 2007 with overhead and residual funds from his other research grants. Now he wants to incorporate it into the PHEV equation.

“The big picture of the research is determining whether the wind turbine produces enough electricity to charge the vehicle on average,” he said. “The preliminary data shows that it will. The research will show if that’s valid.”

Patten wants a completely green transportation system. “When the car runs in electric mode, there are no tailpipe emissions,” he said. “But when the car is plugged into a windmill, there will also be no power plant emissions.”

The present set up at the CEAS requires Patten to keep manual records about miles driven, kilowatt hours used, and time required. A new Web-based meter is presently being installed to automate the collection process. “We’ll put that information into a database and spreadsheet and use that for the analysis,” he said. “The results will be posted on the Web page.”

The CEPG grant lasts one year. Follow the research at http://www.wmich.edu/mfe/energy/research_and_labs.php#phev